Joining Wichita Falls Sikes Lakes Throng Seeking Pokemon

I left my abode earlier than the norm due to the fact that my driveway is getting resurfaced today, which meant my motorized vehicular form of transport needed to be at a location other than the driveway.

I had intended to go climb Mount Wichita prior to going to ALDI.

But then I remembered something I read this morning in the Wichita Falls Times News Record newspaper online that made me think a visit to Sikes Lake might be interesting.

And educational.

The past several days I have been reading various references to a world-wide phenomenon regarding something called Pokemon. I knew it involved cell phones, a Japanese cartoon character, GPS directions and Pokemon-izers getting distracted due to staring at their phones.

This morning I read in the aforementioned Wichita Falls newspaper that hundreds of locals have been descending on Sikes Lake doing whatever it is you do with Pokemon and your phone.

Sikes Lakes is halfway to ALDI. And so I stopped there on my way to ALDI. The parking lot had a few more vehicles parked than the norm. A girl's soccer team was practicing. As I walked around the lake I noticed nothing unusual. Several joggers, several walkers.

No one staring at a cell phone.

Then I got to the location of the Wichita Falls Museum of Art and saw that which you see above on a concrete bench. Is that the Pokemon people seek and then take a cell phone photo of to prove they found it? Is that the deal, I wondered?

Less than a minute after that I noticed the museum parking lot had a lot of cars in it. Usually it is empty in the morning time frame. And then I noticed hordes of people looking like they were in zombie mode, staring at their phones.

I approached a young couple and asked the male of the pair if it was that Pokemon thing that they were doing. He confirmed that it was. I asked if he could explain it to me. Sure, said he. He then showed me his phone screen, explained they were looking for stuff via GPS coordinates and then when you found what you were looking for something happened on your phone that made you happy.

That is my short version of what I was told.

I really did not understand.

I continued on. That is the guy I spoke to on the right side of the picture below, walking along the paved trail around Sikes Lake, staring at his phone. You can see the guy in the center of the photo also staring at his phone. I don't know what the other guy is doing.

Continuing on I crossed the bridge heading towards the parking lot from whence I began my Pokemon walk. I soon came upon what looked to be a dad walking with his two pre-teen kids, a boy and a girl.

I asked the dad if he understood what the kids were doing. Not a clue was his reply. Me either, said I.

Are America's Biggest Boondoggle's Bridges Dust In The Wind?

Months ago, the only one of America's Biggest Boondoggle's three bridges to nowhere, under construction, came to a halt due to the discovery of a design problem.

Make believe construction of that one bridge under construction began with a bang, literally, way back in 2014.

By "literally" we mean there actually was a big bang, as in J.D. Granger and his mama pushed the plunger on a device marked TNT to set off an explosion to celebrate the significant event of the imaginary beginning of construction on one of The Boondoggle's three simple little bridges connecting Fort Worth's mainland to an imaginary island.

Actual construction did not begin til much later than the time of the big bang.

The Boondoggle's apologists and propaganda purveyors long foisted the lie that the three bridges were being built over "dry land" so as to save money, when the fact of the matter is there was never going to  be any water under those bridges until a ditch was dug under them, with Trinity River water added to the channel.

Way back in 2013 I blogged about The Boondoggle's bridge building propaganda after receiving one of The Boondoggle's quarterly updates. A snippet of that blogging...

Speaking of Panther Island. On page 2 of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Update there is the headline "Paving the way to Panther Island."

Under that headline there is this short paragraph...

Three signature V-pier bridges will go out for bid together this November. By packaging the three bridges together a tremendous amount of money will be saved. Construction is scheduled to begin this winter.

Construction did not begin that winter. Or the next winter.

Recently I wondered about the current status of that one bridge The Boondoggle had under construction that had developed a design problem in need of a fix. I'd seen nothing in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the bridge or the fix, since the initial news of the construction halt.

Then yesterday someone with the name Anonymous made a blog comment regarding the current status of The Boondoggle's bridge construction....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "J.D. Granger Takes Time Off From His Congressional Duties To Wade In The Trinity River":

Speaking of slow motion bridges... I drove by the sparkling trash can last weekend. All the rebar has been removed from the forms on the Jacksboro Hwy columns and the scene generally looks like a ghost town. Not sure how long the delay was said to be, but no visible progress is the update for now. 

_________________________

Wow.

It was way back in March I blogged Design Woes Are Not The Only Problem With Fort Worth's Panther Island Bridges.

At that point in time the Star-Telegram informed us the fix would take about a month. It is now about five months later.

Has anyone seen an article in the Star-Telegram informing its readers about the status of The Boondoggle's bridge?

If I have said it once I have said it twice, Fort Worth suffers due to lacking an actual newspaper practicing actual investigative journalism.

Speaking of the Star-Telegram's lack of investigative journalism, has anyone seen an article about that which Mary Kelleher dusted us with today in her blog post titled EAST FORT WORTH...NOT JUST DUST IN THE WIND?

J.D. Granger Takes Time Off From His Congressional Duties To Wade In The Trinity River

Someone calling him or herself "J.D.'s Ex" emailed me with a Facebook link and a question asking...

"What fresh nonsense is this?"

Apparently, on July 11, 2015, J.D. Granger started working at the U.S. House of Representatives, according to his Facebook page, with the germane part you see screen capped here.

I think Congress is currently on one of its long breaks from ill-serving the people, which would explain why J.D. Granger was documented to be semi-skinny dippping, wading in the Trinity River, in Fort Worth, on July 7, rather than attending to his congressional duties.

How is Mr. Granger working in Washington, one can not help but wonder? Is he employed on his mama's staff? How does  J.D. find the time to work in Washington and still manage all the various river parties he helps host in Fort Worth, in addition to overseeing the slow motion construction of three little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island?

How was it not major news in the Fort Worth zone that J.D. Granger had started working at the U.S. House of Representative a year ago?

J.D. Granger Semi Skinny Dip In The Trinity River With One Of His Girl Friends

I have long opined it odd Fort Worth's favorite Frat Boy, J.D. Granger, he being the instigator behind Fort Worth's multitude of rabble getting wet in the polluted Trinity River, while not having been documented getting himself wet in the infamous river known to be infested with alligators and floating feces.

And then I heard from someone named Anonymous.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Saturday Roller Blading Around Wichita Falls Sikes Lakes":

JD Granger at Rockin' the River and in the water. Photo #20.

Rockin' the River July 7

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I got to Photo #20, as Anonymous suggested, to find myself shocked to be seeing a scantily clad J.D. Granger, with his current girl friend, Shanna Cate, standing in what I assume must be the Trinity River.

Then again, this is the Internet, and one can not trust what one sees, no matter how believable it appears.

Does anyone have photo documentation of  J.D. floating on an inner tube, splashing with the rabble? Confirming he actually got himself immersed in the Trinity River at one of his perverse Rockin' the River Happy Hour Floats?

Saturday Roller Blading Around Wichita Falls Sikes Lake

Years ago, after a bloody crash in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area, I gave up roller blading.

That bloody crash was bad. Half the skin off half the left side of my buttocks region was scraped off by sudden contact with cement.

After that bloody crash, I eventually got myself back vertical, slowly making my way back to my vehicular transport.

Dripping blood as I slowly rolled along.

I recollect hobbling into Walmart seeking bandage material, where I discovered a liquid bandage product.

The liquid bandage product worked, stopping the bleeding. Healing soon followed. Within a couple months the bruising subsided and my buttocks region was restored to its pre-crash pristine state.

But, I swore off roller blading. Did not want to go through that type trauma again.

Til this week.

I re-installed my roller blades and had myself a mighty fine time rolling the paved trail around Sikes Lake at Midwestern State University.

Roller blading came back to me like an easily recovered lost memory. That sort of surprised me. I guess it is like riding a bike. Once one masters that skill it stays with one forever.....

World Wonders If Any Officers Killed In Dallas Ambush Had Fort Worth Connections

I saw that which you see here this morning on the front page of the online version of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

My instant reaction to seeing this was to think how bizarre.

That this seemed to be a perverse iteration of the Star-Telegram's long discredited, embarrassing Green With Envy verbiage, which I came to be appalled by soon after my initial exposure to the Star-Telegram and its extreme small town way of covering news in a big city.

Is it really newsworthy that one of the police officers murdered in the Dallas tragedy had some connection to the town 30 miles west of Dallas?

Of all the myriad aspects of the Dallas tragedy that the Star-Telegram might cover I find a story headlined "One of officers killed in Dallas ambush had Fort Worth roots" to be so pointlessly shallow.

America's Biggest Boondoggle's Water Activity Key To Turn Around Not Drown

I saw that which you see here last night on Facebook via Fort Worth connoisseur and cultural icon, Bud Kennedy.

My initial reaction upon seeing this was that it was someone's idea of a prank, making fun of America's Biggest Boondoggle's bizarre floating beer party music events in the polluted Trinity River.

By morning I saw no further mention of this latest Fort Worth Sick City embarrassment. Facebook this morning was dominated by the horrific terrorist attack in Dallas.

So, if what Bud Kennedy posted is to be believed the Trinity River water is now being regularly tested, one would assume daily, or more than once daily, with those tests quickly processed and the results posted on a Panther Island Pavilion Water Activity Flag Key, where there is no island or pavilion.

This morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram made no mention of this new Water Key thing, but the front page did make note of the fact that Trinity water quality has once again canceled tubing in the polluted river.

According to the Water Key there are three levels of water activity, Green, Yellow and Red.

Methinks more appropriate coloring would have been Blue, Yellow and Brown.

According to the Water Activity Key when the Trinity is at Level Green the permitted activities are "Wading by children and adults, swimming, water skiing by permit, diving, tubing, surfing, kayaking, canoeing, stand-up paddle boarding, catch and release fishing, and handfishing as defined by Texas Parks & Wildlife Code. #66.115."

Water skiing? Diving? Surfing? Handfishing? How utterly bizarre.

According to the Water Activity Key when the Trinity is at Level Yellow the permitted activities are "Wading by adults, kayaking, canoeing, stand-up paddle boarding, & catch and release fishing."

Okay, we hit Yellow and kids can no longer wade. Along with No Tubing. No Diving, No Surfing. No swimming. And, of course, No Handfishing. Again, how utterly bizarre.

And then when the Water Activity Key goes to Level Red the permitted activities are "NONE. Due to water velocity creating turbid conditions and floating debris, the river and riverbanks are closed for public safety. TURN AROUND. DON'T DROWN. OR TURN BROWN."

Oh, I see, The water testing discovers the water is moving too fast, and thus too turbid, along with too much stuff floating in the river. Apparently the testing does not test for things like too much e.coli or other pathogens.

Again, how utterly bizarre.

A Wichita Falls Walk Around Sikes Lake With Picasso & Andy Warhol

I was not long in Wichita Falls before I began noticing horses of many colors at locations all over town.

I soon learned this was a citywide public art project called The Mane Event.

The Mane Event has a website where one can find a map of the location of all the horses of many colors.

I soon also learned that the horses were Mustangs and that the Mustang is the mascot of Midwestern State University, a school a short distance from my abode.

Today I traveled that short distance from my abode to walk around Sikes Lake at Midwestern State University.

During that walk around Sikes Lake one comes to the Mane Event Mustangs you see here. A mama Mustang and her baby.

This Mane Mustang is very close to the Wichita Falls Museum of Art. So, it is fitting that this particular Mane Mustang is covered with famous works of art by famous painters.

Including Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Leonardo Da Vinci, Andy Warhol, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gaugin, Johannes Vermeer, Michelangelo and Grant Wood.

Take a virtual tour around this Mane Mustang and see how many of the famous painters and their works of art you can identify. I would hazard to guess most will be able to identify the works of Grant Wood,  Andy Warhol, Leonardo Da Vinci, Picasso and maybe Vincent Van Gogh.

Recommending Durango Jones On Facebook Is Abusive

Now, this is puzzling.

Last night I made a comment on a Brook Bailey Facebook post.

My comment included the link to my blogging about Sick City.

Brook Bailey then tried to send that Sick City link to another Facebooker, telling the Facebooker that "I think you'd enjoy reading Durango Jones blog."

Facebook then told Brook Bailey that her attempt to share the Sick City link was deemed abusive or that it was otherwise disallowed.

Brook Bailey was then advised that to keep from getting blocked again she needed to make sure she read and understood Facebook's Community Standards.

Facebook has community standards?

Downtown Fort Worth May Get A New Store For Christmas

I saw that which you see here this morning on the front page, online, of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and found what which I saw to be amusing.

Amusing for a couple reasons.

Toy store headed to Sundance Square? With an illustrative photo of the former parking lot re-purposed as Sundance Square Plaza.

Have the goofballs who run downtown Fort Worth decided to drop "Plaza" from the name of the re-purposed parking lot?

It was after several years of exposure to Fort Worth that I finally learned that Sundance Square was the name given to a multi-block downtown Fort Worth revitalization scheme. Why would such a name be chosen for such a scheme with no one realizing it was confusing to call something Sundance Square, where there was no square?

Last week I blogged about the frenzy of new construction in downtown Seattle, with 65 major buildings under construction.

While in Sick City, Fort Worth, it is big news that a toy store is headed to Sundance Square by Christmas.....